LITCHFIELD >> Two Wisconsin natives have purchased the Litchfield Saltwater Grille and plan to keep the name and retain the staff, while adding some of their own personal touches to the mix. Owner Brett Clugston announced last week that she and husband Albert, who is also the restaurant’s current chef, will end their seven years as owners to pursue other interests.

Hailing from a small town of about 600 in Northern Wisconsin, Manitowish Waters, Andy Stowers and Brook Noel both took an interest in New England from an early age. Stowers’s family had a horse farm in Vermont, so he would visit New England often during the holidays and summers. For Noel, her fascination with the East Coast started when she was 6. She said she fell in love with the area the first time she visited.

“Our daughter is in college so we thought that it might be time to look at a new adventure in life,” Stowers said. “We’ve always wanted to be in New England.”

Noel is a best-selling author on the topics of grief, parenting, cooking and self-improvement. She has about five years of experience with restaurants, she said, and recently completed a certificate program at Cornell University for hospitality.

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“It’s going to be a challenge,” she said, of diving into the restaurant business, “but that’s part of what makes us so excited about it.”

Chef Robert Potter, also from Wisconsin, will make up for what the couple lacks in restaurant experience. With over 25 years on the job cooking everything from Asian cuisine to American to Southwest, Potter has the ability to create a very versatile menu. Potter will handle the kitchen functions and orders, replacing head chef Albert Clugston.

“He’s worked in restaurants that have served up to 1,500 meals a night. I think he’ll work very well under pressure,” Stowers said.

Stowers and Noel have been “secretly eating” at Saltwater for weeks. Stowers, previously a businessman in the computer industry for a quarter decade, said that they spent a number of months evaluating New England restaurants, narrowing the list down to about a dozen this past summer.

“We wound up here during the end of our evaluation and kind of fell in love with the place,” he said.

Litchfield, which Noel said reminded them of home with its touristy rural feel, was “a natural fit.”

“Since we’ve been here everyone has been so welcoming and so helpful. It just seems like it’s going to be a great fit,” she said.

The two have settled in Goshen about four miles from the restaurant, and don’t plan to make many drastic changes to the fine restaurant that the Clugstons built from the ground up. Noel said they’ll add a few touches to the menu including a few new dinner entrées, appetizers and a revamped lunch menu.

They have however retained the entire staff and plan to keep the restaurant’s name. Brett Clugston said that it was important to have the restaurant’s legacy carry on. They had received interest from several parties, but chose Noel and Stowers for that reason, among others.

“We felt a big responsibility to our staff, of course, because they’ve been so loyal to us and we wouldn’t be here without them. So many of them have been here for two, three years,” Clugston said. “I think that it was important to keep the name that we worked so hard to get people to know was here.”

Clugston, who plans to leave Litchfield with her husband Albert to pursue passions like animal activism, volunteer work and bridal consulting, had nothing but high praise for the soon-to-be owners.

“The restaurant business is probably one of the hardest businesses that there is. It’s a lot of hours and it just takes the right people,” Clugston said. “Honestly, if there’s anyone that I think can do this, I think these guys can do it. I think the customers are going to love them, I really do.”